A university's duty when prosecutors don't file charges

In its reporting on the Cornell lawsuit, NPR draws out a distinction that tends to get blurred in public arguments about campus sexual assault: universities have responsibilities when students report an assault, even if prosecutors don't bring charges. Attorney Baine Kerr, who spoke with NPR about how those protections work, treats the criminal question and the institutional one as separate obligations.

The practical effect is that a case can close in a prosecutor's office and stay open on a campus — a different process, with a separate set of consequences for the people involved.